Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-12
PEOPLE OF TIE STAGE.
TAKEN TO TASK FOR NOT STUDY
ING A LITTLE MORE DILIGENTLY.
They Think of Little Else but Their
Art or Seience-Leaping Into Prom

They Think of Little Else but Their
Calling, and Care Little for Literature,
Art science-Leaping Into Prom
inence.
While there are so few people connected
with theatricals who take pains to build up
their knowledge of matters outside the pro-
fession, it is really most striking thing that
cases so rarely appear where men and women
had any school education to speak of before
they began to act 1t is unquestionably a
distinct truth that the theatre possesses fewer
educated people hundredfold than are to
be found in any other occupation that comes
under the head of a profession. There are,
indeed. no educational restrictions whatever
upon those who earn their livelihoods by act
ing He who would be a physician must IN
flergo long and careful preparation for the
holding of that post in life The sculptor, the
painter, the lawyer, the journalistic all
these some general knowledge is indispensable
But it is not necessary that an actor, in order
to make far more than ordinary success,
should be possessed of common mental power,
or of any of the arts of the student whatso-
ever
The author furnishes him with speeches,
the scenic artist surrounds him with correct
environments and the costumer clothes him
III dresses suited to the period in which
lived the character he is to portray His own
contribution is almost purely physical Voice
| carriage and practice are usually his stock in
trade.
| ILLITERACY BECOMES FAMOUS
There is a well known leading man who re-
| rantty rlaNrp1 in Now. Norl- laH Hsta
| capacity who was once a waiter in fourth
rate restaurant and who is certainly quite as
| illiterate now as he was in the DAYS when he
was accustomed to pitch his resonant voice to
the tune of Beef and beans, and stack of
whites on the side" Yet this actor had no
| difficulty in exacting "A salary exceeding SO.
600 a year, and he has played the best run of
| parts III the best range of companies in the
United States. He cannot write letter that
is more than barely intelligible, and his con-
versation glitters with thickly strewn linguis-
tie contortions that would give the grammar
editor of The New York Sun a very severe
pain.
People in general are wont to complain that
actors and actresses spoken of in bulk, as it
were, are possessed of inordinate vanity and
self asserUiveneSs On railway trains, in hotels
and in almost all their life outside the theatre
they make their business evident by the nature
of their conversation and by the various
pranks in which they indulge Some few
among them protest with spirit against these
exhibitions, but the conduct of the majority
goes on Just the same. and the comments upon
it continue to be quite as unpleasant year in
and year out.
1t Is not a strange thing that stage per
formers should be vain and conceited So
much sdulation is bestowed upon them, SO
many people seek their society and applaud
their tales of victory, the recognition of their
work is so instantaneous and so hearty, and
there is so little beyond themselves and their
own accomplishments for them to think about
that their progress toward supreme belief In
themselves is easy and not unnatural There
are so many among them who command
columns of newspaper consideration all over
the country. when if it were not for the stage
they might be in the employ of the street cal
companies or of the restaurant keepers that
there is no special wonderment in the fact Of
their lofty self regard